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The term ‘fundamental rights’ expresses the concept of ‘human rights’ within a specific EU-internal context. Traditionally, the term fundamental rights is used in a constitutional context whereas the term ‘human rights’ is used in international law. The two terms refer largely to the same substance as can be seen, for instance, by the many similarities between the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and the European Convention on Human Rights. The EU has come to use fundamental rights to describe the obligations of the EU and its Member States towards everyone in the EU. To keep it simple, the toolkit uses the expression ‘fundamental rights’ throughout.

Gender equality

Identifies the social relations between men and women. It refers to the relationship between men and women, boys and girls, and how this is socially constructed. The principle of gender equality prohibits any "discrimination against women" that means any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field. (United Nations)

The rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible. Universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in the forms of treaties, customary international law, general principles and other sources of international law. International human rights law lays down obligations of governments to act in certain ways or to refrain from certain acts, in order to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups.

Joined-up governance for fundamental rights

Joined-up governance describes a strategy that aims to coordinate the development and implementation of fundamental rights across government structures. This is done by developing cooperation and coordination mechanisms and tools that link up efforts at local, regional, national, EU and international levels (multi-level), as well as different governmental sectors on one level (cross-sector).

Joined-up governance involves not only government departments and agencies, but also independent bodies and civil society, to work across organisational boundaries towards one common goal: making fundamental rights a reality for all.

Mainstreaming human rights

Assessing how any planned policy action, including legislation and policy-shaping instruments, in all sectors and levels may have an impact on human rights or have a human rights dimension . (UN Practitioner’s Portal on Human Rights Based Approaches to Programming)

Minorities

A group numerically inferior to the rest of the population of a State, in a non-dominant position, whose members - being nationals of the State - possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics differing from those of the rest of the population and show, if only implicitly, a sense of solidarity, directed towards preserving their culture, traditions, religion or language. (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights)

Respect for the rights of people belonging to minorities is one of the values of the EU. This value is explicitly mentioned in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union. EU legislation and programmes contribute to addressing certain difficulties, including discrimination, which are likely to affect people belonging to minorities. (European Commission)

Monitoring can be defined as the ongoing process by which stakeholders obtain regular feedback on the progress being made towards achieving their goals and objectives. Monitoring should be understood as reviewing progress made in implementing actions or activities, but also focusing on reviewing progress against achieving goals. In other words: “Are we taking the actions we said we would take?” but also “Are we making progress on achieving the results that we said we wanted to achieve?”

Multi-level coordination

Multi-level coordination is commonly referred to as multi-level governance. It refers to coordinated action by the European Union, the Member States, and/or local and regional authorities within Member States’ national administrations. The responsibility to implement fundamental rights is shared between different levels of governance (vertical coordination), from the local to the EU level. Without this kind of coordination, there is a clear risk that fundamental rights issues, which commonly require such coordination, are neglected.

National Equality Bodies are independent organisations established on the basis of EU anti-discrimination law. They have a mandate to provide assistance to victims of discrimination, conduct surveys concerning discrimination, and publish independent reports and make recommendations on any issue relating to discrimination in their country.

National Human Rights Institutions are independent institutions established by law and in compliance with the United Nations endorsed ‘Paris Principles’. NHRIs are mandated to protect and promote human rights at the national level in accordance with international human rights norms and standards.